Australia '08

Settling in... @ Kirribilli, Australia

2008-02-05T09:51:10.000Z

Condo at Millson's Point with a View of the Opera House

Walk over the Harbour Bridge @ Sydney, Australia

2008-02-09T10:38:34.000Z

Sunday was an unusually nice day for what we've been seeing so I went for a long walk around the harbour front, over the bridge and paid $10 to climb up to the top of the bridge to what is called the "Pylon Lookout". There are great views from up top and inside the Pylon is some history of the bridge and a little souvenir shop (with over priced stationary and croc-jerky). From the Harbour you can see the Opera House, Luna Park and down into the intricate passes that make up Sydney's waterways. There are lots of tourists walking around this area so I didn't feel like an ass stopping to take pictures ever 10 feet.

Royal Botanical Gardens @ Mrs Macquaries Point, Australia

2008-02-15T08:22:14.000Z

Ravaged by Bed Bugs @ Sydney Cove, Australia

2008-02-21T20:14:34.000Z

Don't let the saying about bed bugs fool you into thinking they're about as real as the boogie man... they exists and they BITE

The Arrival of Queen Victoria @ Sydney Cove, Australia

2008-02-22T09:44:38.000Z

Heres a little clip from The Australian....

"The Queen Victoria cruise ship has arrived on a sparkling morning for her first visit to Sydney.
The two-month-old luxury liner entered Sydney Harbour just before daybreak surrounded by an escort of private yachts. Stretching 294 metres in length, the 90,000-tonne ship is the second largest in the Cunard fleet and the newest liner ever to visit Australia. Her much older sister, the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), arrives in Sydney tomorrow. The Queen Victoria will have stay overnight in Sydney, and the two ships will pass each other around 6.30pm (AEDT) at Fort Denison tomorrow evening. While this is the first world voyage of the Queen Victoria, it will be the last visit to Sydney and final world voyage for the QE2. The royal rendezvous will come almost a year to the day after the QE2 and the Queen Mary 2 passed each other in Sydney Harbour. That historic event brought traffic chaos to Sydney when hundreds of thousands descended on the CBD to get a glimpse of the two ships."

Manly Beach @ Manly, Australia

2008-02-22T11:39:12.000Z

The last two weekends have been beautiful as far as weather goes so i have been venturing out to manly beach.. it's not too far from where i live and what's really fun is I can take the ferry or jetcat there and enjoy some time out on the water. The Ferry takes about half an hour to get there and has great views all around the boat. The jetcat takes about 15mins but it costs a bit more and there isn't as good of a view. The water is amazingly blue and the area has lots of cute little shops and eateries. The sushi takeout place is my favourite... mmmmm crabrolls

Two ships passing in the night... @ Blues Point, Australia

2008-02-22T17:57:04.000Z

One great thing about being so close to the CBD and Circular Quay (the main ferry port) is that I’m kind of in the middle of some big happenings in the city. Also, being that my balcony faces the water I get to see ships coming and going all the time which proved very interesting this weekend. If you know anything about cruise liners, you may know that the new Queen Victoria is currently on her maiden voyage around the world, and she stopped in Sydney harbour this Saturday. But what made the weekend all the more important was the second ship docking in town. The Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is currently on her LAST trip around the world which will end in Dhabi where she’ll retire as a floating hotel. Sunday evening marked a historical moment (AND a fantastic publicity stunt by Cunard) as the two massive ships passed each other in the harbour for the first and last time ever.

All that Glitters is Gay @ Sydney, Australia

2008-02-29T14:31:51.000Z

This Saturday marked a very important day in Sydney's history; it was the 30th anniversary of the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade. On June 24, 1978 roughly 1000 GLBTIQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Intersexed & Queer) demonstrators took to the streets of Sydney to show that they lived in this city to and were citizens just like everyone else. That day ended with mass arrests and fights, criminal records and the publishing of every demonstrators name and address in the Sydney Morning Herald resulting in many lost jobs. But all was not lost. That demonstration started a revolution and opened up the doors for GLBTIQ rights in Sydney and across the country. Thirty years later the city is still celebrating Mardi Gras and its' bigger and better than ever.

One of the firms within Ogilvy is in partnership with Mardi Gras and sends volunteers to the parade to maintain and control the media. As a member of the Ogilvy team I was able to hop on board for a long but exciting day. The day started at 10am while we prep for the media briefing at the Marriott Hotel right at the marshalling area for the floats. The press conference was pretty exciting for me because one of my favourite comedians Margaret Cho was announced as the Chief of Parade this year. (www.margaretcho.com) She’s hailed as one of the most prolific and critically acclaimed comedians within the gay/lesbian communities and is also widely respected by political activists in North American. As she said during the conference

“People ask me why I’m so involved in the gay community, is it because I’m gay? And my answer is yes, I identify as queer which to me means, I don’t care who you are I just want you to want me. (laughter) But THAT alone is not why I’m involved; I just highly support the idea of all people regardless of gender, race, age or sexual orientation living in harmony and equality.”

A few other big events of the night were the original 78ers making an appearance for their 30th anniversary. But while the city as come so far from 1978, the next demonstration is to show how far they still have to go. A few months ago a young gay male couple walked down Oxford street holding hands. The two were approached by a group of males who beat them to near death. One suffered severe skull fractures and a broken leg, both covered in serious cuts and bruises from being kicked repeatedly while on the ground. The assailants then took one of their phones and called the boys mother to tell her “we killed your faggot son” Now fully, physically recovered Craig and Shane will be walking the entire 7km parade route holding hands as a gesture to all the violently homophobic people who still exist within the Sydney. While holding hands is such a simple gesture of love and admiration, it is one that not all people are given the freedom to do without persecution. Everyone had been encouraged to hold hands whether they were in the crowd, in the parade or just helping out behind the scenes.

Most of my responsibilities for the night involved making sure the media got their story but also ensuring that they didn’t hold up the parade while they were taking pictures, filming and interviewing people. But also I spent some time on crowd control. Most of the major news stations were doing live to air new coverage between 5-7pm. While all the floats were lined up getting ready, the parade didn’t actually start until 7:45 so most people were just drinking in the streets. It should come as no surprise that the people in this parade are not wall flowers and so when they see a camera they run for it. And as I’m holding the hands of my fellow volunteers (not out of love but in an attempt to hold back the hoards of screaming queens trying to pinch the news anchor’s butt) I’m thinking to myself 4 years ago when I decided I wanted to go into PR this is exactly where I picture myself, as a human barricade in one of the biggest gay parades in the world. But when all was said and done the shots turned out great and the news anchors recovered from being offered piggy-back-rides from greased up gay men in hot pants.

Overall it was quite an exciting night. While I’m painfully tired and my lung of full of glitter and my hair is matted with confetti, it was a great experience that I wouldn’t take back. And while it seems like I could have had more fun just going to the parade rather then working it, I would have to disagree because I actually got to be right in the parade marching along with the demonstrators and the news crews.

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!!

My new friends @ Sydney, Australia

2008-03-01T05:43:00.000Z

These little guys landed on my balcony this morning and let me walk right up to them and take a picture

Just enjoying the Ferrys @ Sydney, Australia

2008-03-01T11:36:27.000Z

Future Music Festival @ Randwick, Australia

2008-03-07T10:49:44.000Z

This past weekend i headed out to Coogee Bay area for the Future Music Festival where I saw a ton of great DJ's including Chicks on Speed, Roger Sanchez, Kid Koala and the Chemical Brothers!

Animals! @ Darling Harbour, Australia

2008-03-14T12:54:33.000Z

Coogee Bay @ Coogee, Australia

2008-03-15T09:29:32.000Z

Hanging with the Hostel Mates @ Central Station, Australia

2008-03-17T22:07:00.000Z

Taronga Zoo @ Taronga Zoo Park (Taronga Park), Australia

2008-03-21T09:39:27.000Z

Just another day at work @ Sydney, Australia

2008-03-24T22:09:00.000Z

Not only does it pay to work in a PR agency but it pays to work late because if you kick around long enough someone gives you freebies. As I learned this week, the freebies can be great... like say, a ticket to the red carpet premier of Catherine Zita-Jones and Guy Pearce's New film Death Defying Acts.

The movie was great and I got to see the actors up close, the only bad part was that we went right from work in our suits. So i didn't get to have the real dressed up red carpet experience this time

Virgin Music Fest @ Katoomba, Australia

2008-03-28T11:33:35.000Z

some of the highlights of my day: Hot Hot Heat (who pointed out that they were in fact CANADIAN not American as the festival flier said), Queens of the Stoneage, Duran Duran, CutCopy, Little Red, CSS (as you may know from their song on the I-Touch ads 'music is my hot hot sex'), and Smashing Pumpkins! This was a big deal for me as I was always a big Pumpkins fan and sadly, we were all a little young to go to their shows before they broke up.

Katoomba & The Blue Mountains @ Katoomba, Australia

2008-03-29T11:36:56.000Z

After a day-long music and Jager-Bomb fest of messiness Carla from work and i decided it would be a good idea to take a hike in the Mountains where she lives. (actually It was more my idea, she just was a great host and went along with it) We walked down the "giant staircase" which is carved into the side of the mountain and leads down to the Three Sisters rock formation. We also saw Katoomba Falls, rode the sky cart down through the caves and took a little stroll through the rain forest. We topped the day of with sweets and lunch in Katoomba. (Thanks Carla!)

Hunter Valley @ Cessnock, Australia

2008-03-30T08:39:48.000Z

This is Sydney's best wine country about 2.5 hours North of the City. I've been here for two days and I love it. We are literally out in the middle of nowhere, sleeping in a log cabin and enjoying LOTS of wine, cheese and wood fire pizza. Yesterday was a full day of wine and brewery tours We did a tour of four wineries, cheese tasting, olive oil and chutney tasting and then ended off our day with a beer sampler (for this you get 6, 2oz samples of beer to try and then when you've picked one you like you tell the bar and they give you a full pint of that with wedges.

Cronulla, Australia @ Cronulla, Australia

2008-04-01T11:57:45.000Z

The best way to spend your workless days is surfing..

Last night in Sydney @ Sydney, Australia

2008-04-02T16:42:54.000Z